FIRST
READING: Amos 5:
14 - 15, 21 - 24
14
Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God
of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
15
Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may
be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant
of Joseph.
21
"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your
solemn assemblies.
22
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I
will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts I
will not look upon.
23
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your
harps I will not listen.
24
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an
ever-flowing stream.
PSALM:
Psalms 50: 7 - 13, 16 - 17
7
"Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify
against you. I am God, your God.
8
I do not reprove you for your sacrifices; your burnt offerings are
continually before me.
9
I will accept no bull from your house, nor he-goat from your folds.
10
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand
hills.
11
I know all the birds of the air, * and all that moves in the field is
mine.
12
"If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world and all
that is in it is mine.
13
Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
16
But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my
statutes, or take my covenant on your lips?
17
For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 8: 28 - 34
28
And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,
two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one
could pass that way.
29
And behold, they cried out, "What have you to do with us, O Son
of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?"
30
Now a herd of many swine was feeding at some distance from them.
31
And the demons begged him, "If you cast us out, send us away
into the herd of swine."
32
And he said to them, "Go." So they came out and went into
the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into
the sea, and perished in the waters.
33
The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, and
what had happened to the demoniacs.
34
And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw
him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood.
